The Sigerson Hoke Institute of Talent Christmas Extravaganza!

Sigerson Hoke Institute of Talent (SHIT). I came up with that acronym when I was approximately 10 years old. We've used it ever since. It pretty much sums my family up... we're a bunch of sick-minded, yet (in my opinion) hilarious people, who like to joke around about inappropriate things and thoroughly enjoy each other's company while doing so. Going home for Christmas this year was a dream come true. I haven't been with my own family for Christmas in over 3 years. Finally, I got to be with everyone except my brother, who is currently serving in the Airforce over in Japan. He did, however, join us via Skype, along with his girlfriend Chelsea.

It really couldn't have gone better. Jeff and I arrived on December 18th. Meghan picked us up from the airport, and took us to my parent's home in Littleton, CO. I was concerned Meghan and Jeff wouldn't get along, but it was just the opposite. They get along great! They both enjoy intellectual conversations, both are well read, with great vocabularies, and both have similar opinions on the same subjects. It was really cool to watch them bond over these things and I am really glad now that when I want Meghan to come visit, or we want to go visit Meghan, Meghan and Jeff can both look forward to seeing each other, meaning I will get more Meghan time. Did I say Meghan enough in that sentence? lol.

Of course my Mom loves Jeff, and my Step-Dad gets along well with Jeff as well, because they are both sci-fi readers, and both understand money stuff like stocks and bonds and what not. I think one of my favorite parts about our trip was the games we played after dinner. We played Scattergories, Mexican Train,Taboo,Things, etc. etc.. I also enjoyed going with Meghan to Chingu's training. Chingu is Meghan's dog that she adopted from Korea. He's a sweet, very gorgeous Jindo mix. He's also quite a handful, hence the training. Meghan and I did a ton of Christmas shopping, and finally pulled it all together the day before Christmas. It was awesome.

I also have missed my mom's cooking a LOT. So here are a few pics of me enjoying her food, or just her cooking her food. Don't be fooled by my face, I'm happy here.

The day before Christmas, Dusty, Valerie, April, Dave (her husband), and their baby Ian all came. Ian is 4 years old now, and REALLY into Indiana Jones. I still have the theme song stuck in my head. Dun duh dun dun! dun da da! Anyway... he spent the next few days running around with his Indiana Jones whip that plays the theme song over and over again, and asking all of his Aunts to be Marian. haha. I had fun with that. He's really a cute kid. Poor guy broke his arm a few weeks ago, but it definitely did not slow him down from running around, trying to jump on the couch, and whipping "bad guys" with "Marian". I really like being an Aunt. I just want to brag on and on about Ian. He is the most articulate 4 year old I've ever met, he's super sweet, and a pretty good kid. He even told us that he didn't need more than 2 presents for Christmas. It was so cute. He definitely got more than that though. Anyway..

Christmas itself was pretty sweet! We all got and gave some great presents.

We got up super early for Ian's sake, and you can tell by the following photos how happy we were about it:

In fact while we waited, Jeff and Ian played a spirited game of Indiana Jones VS Pink Bunneh! You may see what looks like a blur coming from Ian's hand.. it's his whip moving at the speed of lightning!Ian got to play Santa this year and hand out the presents. He and his Dad, Dave, and Jeff all got matching Camo night gowns. How cuuuuute!

Afterward, almost everyone took a nap. Those of us who didn't sleep played Hungry Hippos with Ian, Sorry, Legos, and a few other games. It was good times.

I don't really have any super crazy stories to tell, I just had an amazingly great time with my family, and am so glad to have gotten to see everyone. However, I did miss my baby Akira, she apparently missed me too, because she's been clingier than EVER and is currently sitting RIGHT BY the computer screen staring at me intently.
Chris took good care of her, though, and I really appreciate how responsible he was in taking care of Akira, even though he's allergic to cats. He's a good friend.

Alrighty, well, I'll end this with a few random photos of our vacation to Colorado. Some of the following are from my parents' or Valerie's cameras.

Me and Val on my Camera
Me and Jeff also taken with my camera

Me and Jeff with Val's camera.. I just really like these pictures, I think they really reflect how well we mesh. :)
Me and Val on Val's Camera... I love Val. She's such a cute sister. I wish she lived closer.

Me and Val's Top Model Poses... yeah... you can tell I'm definitely not America's next top model...

Blog Out.

Wow

So it's been WAAAY TOO LONG since I posted.

Life is going well. I've been busy with work, and with play. If you are my facebook friends, you are all aware that I went to visit my sister a few weeks ago in Colorado. She flew home from Korea (after being gone and living there for a year), and I flew in the same day. It was so nice to see and spend time with her. We stayed in CO for a few days and then drove to Las Vegas to pick up the dog she adopted in Korea (Chingu). It was a fun trip. Not enough time in Vegas, though, we only stayed one night and we were both way too tired to really enjoy it. It's an 11 hour drive from Denver. Chingu is a delightful dog. Meghan was worried he wouldn't like me, but we were instant friends. I'm assuming it has to do with the fact that Meghan and I sound very similar, and smell similar (I only know this because once a few years ago our younger sister Rebekah sniffed my head and said "you smell like Meghan." lol... she's hilarious). Anyways, so we drove from Vegas to St.George, which was way further away from Vegas than we'd realized. However, it was worth it the next morning, when we went to see our Grandma Pauline, who is my step-mom's mother. I love Grandma Pauline. She's always been a really great grandma to me, always treated me and Meghan like instant family. When she saw us, she broke into tears, and I almost cried too. I hadn't seen her in probably 7 years. Maybe more. So we sat and caught up with her for a few hours, and then got back on the road to Denver. Colorado was also awesome because it's where Meghan and I realized we had both gotten down to a size 2! We had a slight competition on who would be skinnier so we'd both tried a little harder, and whala! I'm pretty excited. All in all I lost about 8 lbs in the past month. Part of that was the flu, though. :(

Once I was home, Thanksgiving happened. First we went to Jeff's mom's house. We had a delicious Turkey lunch and played Mario Brothers on the Wii, which, by the way, is one of the most awesome games I have played in the past 5 years of my life. I highly recommend it, especially for those of you wondering what to give your husband that won't leave you an XBox360 widow. I can actually play this game with my husband rather than ignoring him while he plays some weird game I can't get into. I digress... anyway, after we had that Thanksgiving meal, we went to my Aunt Sherry and Aunt Didi's house and had Thanksgiving Dinner! YUM! I had turkey, sweet potatoes, and buttermilk pie (my favorite). I know, I shouldn't eat gluten, but I sacrificed just that one time. After dinner we played cards with the aunts and my cousin Kim and her husband Brian. It was really fun. We played Texas Hold'Em. I lost before everyone else, but ended up playing for my Aunt Sherry while she ate pie. I ended up winning for her! So I lost and then I won! It was awesome. I was so freakin proud of myself. And as always, I enjoy my Aunts' company very much, I can't help it, they make me laugh and entertain me endlessly.

Other than that, not much is going on. I've been training my clients and added a few on last week. I love what I do. My clients are all progressing, especially my most recent ones. I've got one who lost a whole pant size in 1 month, and another who lost an inch in her waist! It makes me really happy to see their progress, and keeps me going when I feel tired or stressed out. Akira's been behaving herself and playing fetch with me a lot recently. I think she missed me when I was gone.

Sorry if this was a boring blog post. Just trying to catch you guys up. Fortunately enough, my life is no longer the dramatic soap opera it once was, and honestly, I'm really enjoying the peace and quite. Hope you all have a great holiday season!